Swanee

Swanee

Originating from Glasgow, John Swan has been on the Australian music scene since he was 14 years old. He has become part of this country’s musical backbone playing first as a drummer, then as a singer with many of the countrys' top rock and roll outfits.

In 1978 he released his first album “Into The Night” with WEA Records. Swanee’s first major chart success was a great rendition of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter” from the album “This Time It’s Different”. Success with the next 2 singles from the album immediately followed. “Lady What’s Your Name” and “Temporary Heartache” both screamed straight up the charts.

in 1985, Party Boy Paul Christie was considering a new front man and he needed, by his admission, “the best rock ‘n’ roll voice in the country”. John Swan was asked …………he accepted.

Along came the Party Boys self titled album which went number one in 3 weeks thanks to the success of the number one single “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” and two top 10 hits “Hold Your Head Up” and “Gloria”. They also had success with a song penned by Swan and Lancaster “Is This The Way To Say Goodbye”.

In 2000, John came off the road to get sober after too many years of hard partying. A long distance recording project with Australian producer Mark Moffatt, now based in Nashville, soon turned into a full blown album, ‘Have A Little Faith’. The new record features many of Nashville’s finest players working through a selection of new songs from John, some favourite tunes and some updated versions of his biggest hits.

“I started off singing with an acoustic guitar and sending the songs to Mark,” says John. “It was initially going to be an acoustic album but then it started to rock a bit too much as we settled into that Nashville groove. I love singing hard and pushing myself and I truly believe my singing has gotten much stronger since I’ve been sober.”

According to Mark Moffatt, “We began to put a few tracks together via the internet and as things progressed it became apparent it was going to be much more than an acoustic record, though still a mix of his old & new stuff. A lot of veteran ‘southern cats’ in town wanted to know who this amazing singer was... so I just kept going at it, building tracks to where I felt they needed to be to support John’s voice.”

The album is called ‘Have A Little Faith’ and is John’s best work to date. Swanee the band is back on the road for special gigs and major tours. He’s back with the blues where it all started and he couldn’t be happier.

“My main thing these days,” he says, “is working with the next generation. I’m trying to show them from my own experiences that you don’t have to screw up your life and that you can be more creative and challenge yourself when you’re straight...in fact, the longer you do it that way, the better you get! Then you can really enjoy and appreciate the rewards that come for your efforts.”